Political opposition leaders weren’t happy to hear that an Emera executive talked this week about a “healthy increase” in power rates, and Tory Leader Jamie Baillie called for a rate freeze.

Scott Balfour, Emera’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer, also told a Toronto audience that elections can be “distracting.”

Balfour told a conference there Thursday that Nova Scotia Power “traded off” a lower return on equity in exchange for a two-year settlement agreement on rate increases.

“That helps take us through an election cycle and other things that can sometimes be distracting,” he said during a panel at the Scotiabank Canadian Energy Infrastructure Investing Conference.

The settlement deal, which still needs to be approved by the Utility and Review Board, would reduce Nova Scotia Power’s rate of return to nine per cent from 9.2 per cent.

The agreement, reached this fall by the utility and customer representatives, also includes rate hikes of three per cent in 2013 and 2014.

Balfour, who joined Nova Scotia Power’s parent company in April, told the conference the hikes are “a reasonably healthy increase” in power rates.

The deal also requires Nova Scotia Power to cut costs by $27.5 million over the next two years.

Balfour’s comments came against a backdrop of the three political parties trying to woo voters with promises that their respective plans for Nova Scotia Power would ensure the fairest rates for consumers.

Baillie said the review board “should cancel the agreement altogether and freeze rates where they are now.”

He said Balfour’s comments highlight the problem with backroom deals on power rates.

“We see that things like the guaranteed profit of the power company are traded like bargaining chips when the doors are closed,” Baillie said.

“To me, it proves we need to set power rates in the open light of day for everybody to see.”

Premier Darrell Dexter said Balfour’s comments surprised him, and he wasn’t sure exactly what the Emera exec was getting at.

The premier wouldn’t say whether he thinks the current plan for back-to-back three per cent rate increases is fair.

“I’m not going to pass any judgment on that,” he said. “I simply recognize that there is a process in place that is designed to recognize the needs of consumers, the needs of the utility.”

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said Emera apparently doesn’t want energy to be part of the election conversation.

He said he thinks any rate increase could have been avoided if the government had supported an audit of the utility, which he expects would have found enough savings to eliminate the need for an increase.